Wednesday, March 04, 2009

The Democrats' Need for Villains

An interesting little opinion piece on why the Democrats shouldn't make Limbaugh their target of hatred. It is the end, though, that I found to be most interesting:

"as Obama’s failures aggregate into a deepening crisis of confidence the Democrats’ need for villains will increase in an effort to deflect blame.

And this is why I despair. I predict that in opting to campaign rather than govern, the Democrats are likely to spread the blame net far and wide. The result will be uber-polarization more typical of socialist and fascist polities. The stock market not cooperating? Blame capitalists, the banks, the “investor class.”

Not getting your way in the Middle East? Blame Zionists, Christian conservatives, hint darkly at organized “new-conservative” cabals of Jews. Unemployment continuing to rise? Blame employers. I don’t know which of these or other villains are likely to appear, but based on Democratic Party behavior thus far, am certain that blaming Limbaugh is only the beginning."

I keep finding this theme in not-crazy places, and I do not like that I am. The thing about collectivists and collectivism is that when you are engaged in group-think, there's always going to be a group you are against. The question is, which group or groups will be the targets?

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